The Kosmos Museum in Pavia hosts "Fauna", a historic exhibition by the Catalan artist Joan Fontcuberta, enriched with unpublished photographs in dialogue with some original finds from the Museum.
The inauguration will be held on Saturday 7 October in Kosmos at 5.00 pm, in the presence of the artist who will illustrate his work to the public.
Fontcuberta, who has made the reflection on the legitimacy of photography in the representation of reality a cornerstone of his artistic expression, has repeatedly looked with a critical eye at scientific disciplines such as zoology, botany, anthropology, astronomy.
The “Fauna” series, one of the artist's best-known, was presented for the first time in 1989 at the Zoology Museum in Barcelona and then hosted in natural history museums around the world. Photographs, taxidermied animals, drawings, objects, papers and documents make up the varied architecture of the exhibition which revolves around the figure of the elusive German biologist Peter Ameisenhaufen who, between the 1930s and 1940s, described and classified decidedly unusual animals, not similar to any of the known species. The fortuitous discovery of his archive by Joan Fontcuberta himself is the narrative device from which the exhibition unfolds, entirely based on the relationship between truth and fiction, art and science. In the Kosmos exhibition project, in addition to some taxidermied models already exhibited previously, there is also space for some animals from the Museum's teratological collection which have acquired new meanings thanks to the photographs taken specifically for this exhibition by Fontcuberta.

On the occasion of the exhibition at Kosmos, the first Italian edition of the exhibition catalog will be published, published by Mimesis Edizioni: the official presentation of the catalog in the presence of the author will take place as a preview at the Micamera photographic bookshop in Milan (Via Medardo Rosso, 19 ) Friday 6 October at 6.30 pm.

For over forty years Joan Fontcuberta (Barcelona, ​​1955) has developed her artistic and essayistic activity by exploring the conflicts between nature, technology, photography and truth.
He is the author of numerous publications on the history, aesthetics and epistemology of photography, including the last two titles also published in Italy: Il bacio di Giuda. Fotografia e verità and Contro Barthes. Saggio visivo sull'indice.

The exhibition will be open to visitors until 7 January 2024.